Six of the best

Our netas are multi-faceted characters. Their talents are not just confined to law-making and debating in the House. They are adept at various martial arts and are quite handy to have around if you should find yourself in a spot.

Our netas are multi-faceted characters. Their talents are not just confined to law-making and debating in the House. They are adept at various martial arts and are quite handy to have around if you should find yourself in a spot.

And to stay fighting fit, they need all the practice they can get. So we have TDP and Congress MPs coming to blows in the Lok Sabha over allegations that abusive language was used while a fight broke out at the Yamunanagar Municipal Corporation office between the supporters of the mayor and her deputy over a matter of chairs falling short, leaving one woman councillor of the BJP injured.

If this was not enough, we had the spectacle of a local Congress leader in North-West Delhi who was caught on camera shaking a leg most vigorously with dancing girls while ostentatiously showering them with money. However, the clash between Mussoorie MLA and the chairman of the town's municipal board over hoisting the tricolour on Independence Day takes the cake.

The duel forced the locals to make a three-year-old attending the ceremony hoist the flag. Our leaders will stop at nothing for the sake of the greater national good, even if it means taking a few on the chin.

But the best is behind us. In 1997, the violence that broke out in the Uttar Pradesh state legislature where MLAs used microphones, chairs as weapons featured in the six of the best parliamentary brawls from around the world in 2011, according to the Week.

And this despite serious competition. Taiwanese lawmakers engaged in a wrestling bout inside Parliament and threw water at each other recently.

In comparison, we editorial writers are quite mealy-mouthed when it comes to settling scores. We seethe, we rage, we dream of besting our opponents. But when it comes to action, the best we can do is a snide editorial or two.

Clearly, we need to learn to pack a punch in real life. Maybe, our netas ever on the look out to make a quick buck could impart some lessons for a fee.